Computational Accelerator Physics course

Sponsoring University:

Boston University

Course:

Computational Accelerator Physics

Instructors:

Martin Berz and Kyoko Makino, Michigan State University

Purpose and Audience
The design and analysis of modern particle accelerators, spectrographs, and other devices from the field of beam physics heavily relies on the use of computational techniques and tools. The purpose of the course is to introduce students to a variety of commonly used methods, and at the same time use these to perform actual computations related to common problems. The course is suitable for students with at least a senior-level background in Physics, Mathematics, or Computer Science and an interest in computation and simulation.

Instructional Method
The course will be based on roughly equal time spent on lectures providing the relevant background to the methods, and the solution of practical problems using various commonly used tools. Problems will be both based on paper and pencil work, and on actual simulations of accelerator components.

Course Content
Transfer matrices, significance of their elements, tunes, beta functions, and their computations. Image aberrations, chromaticities, tune shifts, resonances, and their computation. Classification of particle optical elements and their use for correction. Static and dynamic field solvers, space charge effects. Local and global heuristic and deterministic optimization.